Fleshing out Skelattack (with Dialogue)

July 8, 2017

Game Design

When I first started planning Skelattack, there was very little dialogue. My reasoning for this was really more of a justification for the fact that I didn’t know how to program in-game dialogue. And conversations that span multiple sentences, characters, and character portraits?? Forget about it.

Months and months would pass before I finally bit the bullet and reopened my dialogue code to tweak it, break it, fix it, and ultimately figure out how to do larger conversations between multiple characters. It wasn’t fun, but it was definitely worth it. As soon as I had my template dialogue working great, I set out to create a bunch of lively and sometimes weird NPCs to fill the dungeon with. Something that had been bugging me was a lack of other characters to run into. When Ukuza mentioned these things, there was no doubt that it needed to be addressed, as it had crossed my mind as well. The interactions between the main characters, NPCs, and even some enemies will do well to properly reveal humor, charm and motivation.

Keep your eyes out for a future post in which I detail my process for creating the many different characters that round out the cast of NPCs!

I fall in love with Skelattack every day for different reasons. The game has long been a pleasure to think about, write for, program, and illustrate. There’s a special sort of humor that comes along with such unique characters. I can’t wait to show them to you.

David Stanley

People have many ways of describing me as a person, but the common thread in many of their descriptions will be about my art. Whether people just knew me as that quiet kid in middle school who was always doodling in class, or as a passionate freelancer who has sold art internationally. I've been blessed with a creative mind, and the resources to better my own life with it.Is art an extension of the man, or is the man an extension of the art? Probably a bit of both. Enjoy your stay.